Podcast
Grandma's Been There
Hosted by Siobhan Barry · EN
Host and creator Siobhan Barry takes listeners back to the 1950s and 1960s. Her stories, sometimes funny and sometimes serious, are time traveling trips through the days of penny candies, neighborhood ice cream parlors, fifty-cent movie tickets, air raid drills, summers without air conditioning, street games, homemade toys, football weddings, transistor radios, Beatlemania, and a cultural revolution.
29episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Our Summer Reading List
1w ago00:17:18Tap to summarizeNowadays, they call it “me time.” A time to shut out work, world and worries and just concentrate on wellbeing and recharging the physical and spiritual batteries. When I was a kid, we called it summer. Just like the old rhyme said, “No more pencils, no more books. No more teachers’ dirty looks.” I heard that! Except that chant should have been modified to say, “no more textbooks.”
Transcribe →
The Summer of Love
2w ago00:21:26Tap to summarizeThe summer of 1967, so frivolously referred to as the summer of love was a turning point, an ending and a beginning. Somewhere around the middle of July, the counterculture gained a number. I jumped in head first, and never looked back. It was the moment I’d been waiting for for thirteen years.
Transcribe →
Where Are We Going Today?
3w ago00:20:12Tap to summarizeSummer days were long, lazy and dreamy. We were content to spend most of our school vacation outside eating ice cream, drinking sodas and playing with friends on the avenue, going no further than the corner store or the playground on the next block. But on a Saturday or Sunday, or during those two short weeks our fathers were on vacation from their jobs in July or August, we stepped out. All we wanted to know when we got up in the morning was, “Where are we going today?”
Transcribe →
From Unknown Faces
Jul 1000:23:30Tap to summarizeIn January 1968, my favorite band, The Byrds released an album called The Notorious Byrd Brothers. Life-long fans like me referred to it as “the Notorious album.” One of the tracks on the album was “Draft Morning,” a song about a young man, a draftee who was in no hurry to be shipped off to Viet Nam and commanded to kill people, a command that came from faces unknown to him.
Transcribe →
Half Gaelic, Half Garlic
Jul 300:18:55Tap to summarizeWhen we were kids, it was common for us to ask each other, “What are you?” What we were actually asking was, “What nationality are you? Where’s your family from?”
Transcribe →
A Bench For All Seasons: Summer
Jun 2600:17:02Tap to summarizeEven as a child, I was in love with the seasons, their unique personalities and the different things they did to get our attention. But if you asked me what my favorite season was, I didn’t even have to think about it. “Summer!” I said, just like every other kid I knew. Why would you even have to ask?
Transcribe →
The Eternal Kid: A Father's Day Story
Jun 1900:18:48Tap to summarizeThe reason I have so many stories about my father from my own childhood and from the stories he told me about his years as a kid is because of my exceptional memory—the one I’m always bragging about in these episodes, the one I inherited from him.
Transcribe →
It's My Birthday!
Jun 1200:18:28Tap to summarizeI’m a June baby, one of Cancer’s moon children born right after the longest day of the year. In other words, I’m lucky enough to be able to celebrate my birthday right as the summer begins.
Transcribe →
Banned
Jun 500:22:32Tap to summarizeBefore I even became a teenager, there were plenty of banned rock and roll records out there. Many of them were in my own record cabinet.
Transcribe →
I Cannot Tell A Lie
May 2900:18:17Tap to summarizeWhen we were kids, the adults in our lives wanted to be sure we understood that honesty was always the best policy. But how was that concept supposed to sink in when they were constantly lying to us?
Transcribe →